IAMP News Bulletin October 2015
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IAMP News Bulletin October 2015 International Association of Mathematical Physics Contents International Association of Mathematical Physics News Bulletin, October 2015 Contents Message from the Chief Editor3 After the Congress4 The XVIIIth International Congress on Mathematical Physics6 The XIXth International Congress on Mathematical Physics8 Maxwell 150: a celebration in the International Year of Light 15 John E. Roberts, in memoriam 26 Raymond Stora { Cultivator of Fields and Humanist 29 Message from the Treasurer 35 News from the IAMP Executive Committee 39 Contact Coordinates for this Issue 42 Bulletin Editor Editorial Board Evans Harrell Rafael Benguria, Yasuyuki Kawahigashi, Manfred Salmhofer, Robert Sims Contacts. http://www.iamp.org and e-mail: [email protected] Cover picture: The recipients of the 2015 Poincar´eprizes: Herbert Spohn, Alexei Borodin, and Thomas Spencer The views expressed in this IAMP News Bulletin are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the IAMP Executive Committee, Editor or Editorial Board. Any complete or partial performance or reproduction made without the consent of the author or of his successors in title or assigns shall be unlawful. All reproduction rights are henceforth reserved, and mention of the IAMP News Bulletin is obligatory in the reference. (Art.L.122-4 of the Code of Intellectual Property). ISSN 2304-7348 News Bulletin (International Association of Mathematical Physics) M2 IAMPΦ News Bulletin, October 2015 ∩ Message from the Chief Editor Message from the Chief Editor by Evans Harrell It is at once an honor and a high challenge for me to take over the editorship of the News Bulletin, beginning with this issue. The outgoing editor, Valentin Zagrebnov did a superb job of managing the publication of the News Bulletin and making it the sort of publication that the membership both enjoys and finds valuable. Thank you, Valya, for your efforts and your leadership! In this new role I can only aspire to a similar success, but with the aid of the Editorial Board I am optimistic that we can keep bringing to your attention insightful perspectives on research in mathematical physics, news of related events, and other items of interest. We hope that all readers will feel free to contact the Editorial Board whenever you have ideas for future articles, comments, or suggestions about how the News Bulletin can best serve the community of mathematical physicists. Evans Harrell (Chief Editor) IAMP News Bulletin, October 20153 Robert Seiringer After the Congress by Robert Seiringer (President of the IAMP) The International Congress of Mathematical Physics (ICMP), which takes place every three years, is undoubt- edly the most important event for our community. During the past congress in Santiago de Chile at the end of July, we had the opportunity to attend many interesting lectures on a wide range of topics, and thus to learn about fascinating new results and directions. I would like to take this opportu- nity to thank Rafael Benguria and his team for taking on the hard and time consuming task of organizing the congress. I think they have done an excellent job and deserve most of the credit for what I consider to be an extremely successful and enjoyable congress. As has become usual, the congress was preceded by a two-day Young Researchers Symposium (YRS), featuring mini-courses addressed to students and young researchers, and giving many of the latter the opportunity to present their own research in short talks. The fact that so many young people attended the YRS, and also the congress, is very promising for the field of Mathematical Physics. The ICMP is also the opportunity to honor extraordinary achievements in our field. The Henri Poincare Prize, which is sponsored by the Daniel Iagolnitzer Foundation, was given to Alexei Borodin, Thomas Spencer and Herbert Spohn. The Early Career Award, now being awarded for the third time, went to Hugo Duminil-Copin. The award citations, as well as transcripts of the laudations given at the congress, can be found on the IAMP website. Also the IUPAP Young Scientist Prizes were awarded for the third time, to Roland Bauerschmidt, Joseph Ben Geloun and Nicolas Rougerie. Congratulations to all the award recipients! After the congress is also before the congress. During the General Assembly of the IAMP, bids are presented for hosting the next ICMP. This time, we had two truly excellent proposals, one presented by Gian Michele Graf from Zurich, Switzerland, and the other by Vojkan Jakˇsi´cfrom Montreal, Canada. On behalf of the IAMP, I would like to thank them both for all their effort in putting together these bids; the organization of the ICMP is of essential importance for IAMP and our community. I think both proposals would have been excellent choices, but at the end a decision for one of them had to be made. Fortunately for the Executive Community (EC), the vote taking place at the General Assembly showed a clear preference for Montreal, and the EC had no reason for not following the majority opinion. So after 35 years, the congress will be back in North America in 2018! The last one in North America took place in Boulder, Colorado, in 1983, while it was organized in Europe eight times since then. This geographic discrepancy seemed to be one of the decisive factors during the discussions taking place at the General Assembly. So mark your calendars: The next ICMP will take place July 23-28, 2018 in Montreal, 4 IAMP News Bulletin, October 2015 After the Congress preceded by the YRS on July 20-21. I hope to see many of you there! Please encour- age your colleagues, students and postdocs to attend and, of course, to become IAMP members if they aren't yet. Let me close this brief introduction to this issue of the bulletin by saying thanks to one more person: Valentin Zagrebnov. Valentin has been editor of the IAMP bulletin since 2009, and in this role he was responsible for putting together this interesting quarterly booklet with news and updates on the developments in our field. I know that many of you share my opinion that he has done a great job in this endeavor, and an excellent service for our community. After six years as editor, Valentin has decided to step down, and laudably Evans Harrell, who had already been member of the editorial board, has agreed to take over as editor. I wish him success in his new role, and I wish you an enjoyable reading. IAMP News Bulletin, October 20155 Rafael Benguria The XVIIIth International Congress on Mathematical Physics by Rafael Benguria (Congress Convenor, ICMP 2015) The eighteenth International Congress on Mathematical Physics, ICMP 2015, was held in Santiago de Chile, be- tween July 27 and August 1, 2015. It was preceded by the Young Researchers Symposium, YRS, on July 24 and 25. Four satellite meetings were organized around ICMP 2015: i) \Disordered models of mathematical physics", held in July 21{24, in Valpara´ıso,Chile; ii) \Operator Algebras and Quantum Physics", organized at the University of S~aoPaulo between July 17{23; iii) \Summer-school on current topics in mathematical physics", held at Universidad T´ecnicaFed- erico Santa Mar´ıa,Valpara´ıso,Chile, August 3{7; and iv) \IP{Phys2015{Inverse Problems in the Physical Sciences" held at the Center for Mathe- matical Modeling of the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Chile, August 3-5. The Young Researchers Symposium was held at the College UC facilities of the Cam- pus San Joaqu´ınof the Pontificia Universidad Cat´olicade Chile in Santiago. The YRS had 85 registered participants. At the YRS there were three plenary speakers, Søren Four- nais (Aarhus), J¨urgFr¨ohlich (Z¨urich) and Thomas Spencer (Princeton), each one giving a one-hour lecture each morning of the YRS. In total there were 47 young researchers giving oral presentations during the afternoons of the YRS. The Congress itself convened at the Intercontinental Hotel of Santiago. It started with the inauguration and prize awarding ceremony at the \Las Americas Hall" of the Hotel Intercontinental, on Monday, July 27, at 9:00 AM. In total there were 346 reg- istered participants from 30 countries. The inauguration was presided over by Robert Seiringer, president of the IAMP, Francisco Brieva, president of CONICYT (the main funding agency for Scientific Research in Chile), Ignacio S´anchez, the rector of the Pon- tificia Universidad Cat´olicade Chile and the Convenor. During the ceremony Alexei Borodin (MIT), Thomas Spencer (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) and Herbert Spohn (Technical University, Munich) were awarded the Henri Poincar´ePrize (sponsored by the Daniel Iagolnitzer Foundation). The laudatios for Borodin, Spencer and Spohn were given by Percy Deift (NYU), J¨urgFr¨ohlich (ETH) and Martin Hairer (U. War- wick), respectively. The Early Career Award, sponsored by the IAMP was given to Hugo Duminil{Copin (U. Geneva). The laudatio was given by Michael Aizenman (Prince- ton U.). The Young Scientist Price, sponsored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) was given to Roland Bauerschmidt, Joseph Ben Geloun, and Nicolas Rougerie. During the ceremony, the \Cuarteto de Alumnos UC" played the 4th movement of the String Quartet in F Major , Opus 96, \American" by Antonin Dvoˇrak. Also, the soprano Patricia Cifuentes together with the pianist Jorge Hevia interpreted the aria \Sempre libera" of the opera La Traviata, by Giuseppe Verdi. Concerning the scientific program of ICMP 2015, there were seventeen one{hour ple- nary lectures, most of them given during the mornings. Moreover, there were ten thematic 6 IAMP News Bulletin, October 2015 The XVIIIth International Congress on Mathematical Physics sessions, each one organized by two people. In total there were 65 invited and 61 con- tributed talks in the thematic sessions.